Raspberry Pi Deployment¶

Run FRacker on your Raspberry Pi for a low-cost, self-hosted personal finance solution.

Supported Models¶

Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB+ RAM recommended)
Raspberry Pi 3B+
Raspberry Pi 5

Performance

For best performance, use a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB+ RAM and run from an SSD instead of SD card.

Prerequisites¶

1. Operating System¶

Install Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) Lite or Desktop:

Download from raspberrypi.com/software
Flash to SD card using Raspberry Pi Imager
Enable SSH during setup for headless operation

2. Install Docker¶

SSH into your Pi and install Docker:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and back in for group changes to take effect.

Install Docker Compose:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-compose -y

Verify installation:

docker --version
docker-compose --version

Installation¶

1. Download FRacker¶

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/ahbergamo/finance_tracker.git
cd finance_tracker

2. Configure Environment¶

cp .env_default .env
nano .env  # Or use vim/vi

Recommended settings for Raspberry Pi:

SECRET_KEY=your_super_secret_key_change_this
FLASK_CONFIG=config.config.PortableConfig

DB_USER=finance_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_secure_password
DB_HOST=db
DB_PORT=3306
DB_NAME=finance_tracker

REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379
APP_PORT=1310

3. Pull Docker Images¶

FRacker provides pre-built ARM64 images:

docker-compose pull

4. Start Services¶

docker-compose up -d

5. Verify Deployment¶

Check container status:

docker-compose ps

View logs:

docker-compose logs -f finance_tracker

Access FRacker at:

http://<raspberry-pi-ip>:1310

Performance Optimization¶

Use External Storage¶

For better performance, run the database on an external SSD:

Mount SSD to /mnt/finance_data
Update docker-compose.yml volume paths
Move MySQL data directory

Limit Memory Usage¶

If using a Pi with limited RAM, add memory limits to docker-compose.yml:

services:
  finance_tracker:
    mem_limit: 512m
  db:
    mem_limit: 256m
  redis:
    mem_limit: 128m

Enable Swap¶

Increase swap space for stability:

sudo dphys-swapfile swapoff
sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile
# Set CONF_SWAPSIZE=2048
sudo dphys-swapfile setup
sudo dphys-swapfile swapon

Auto-Start on Boot¶

Enable Docker to start on boot:

sudo systemctl enable docker

FRacker containers will auto-start with Docker.

Backup Strategy¶

Create automated backups of your database:

# Create backup script
cat > ~/backup-finance.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
BACKUP_DIR=~/finance_backups
mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
docker exec finance_tracker_db mysqldump -u finance_user -p<password> finance_tracker > $BACKUP_DIR/backup_$DATE.sql
# Keep only last 30 days
find $BACKUP_DIR -name "backup_*.sql" -mtime +30 -delete
EOF

chmod +x ~/backup-finance.sh

Add to crontab for daily backups:

crontab -e
# Add: 0 2 * * * /home/pi/backup-finance.sh

Monitoring¶

Monitor your Pi's temperature and performance:

# Check temperature
vcgencmd measure_temp

# Monitor resources
htop

# Check Docker stats
docker stats

Troubleshooting¶

Out of Memory¶

If the Pi runs out of memory:

Increase swap space (see above)
Add memory limits to containers
Consider upgrading to a Pi with more RAM

Slow Performance¶

Use SSD instead of SD card
Reduce concurrent database connections
Enable query caching in MySQL

Network Issues¶

Ensure port 1310 is accessible:

sudo ufw allow 1310/tcp  # If using UFW firewall

Security Recommendations¶

Change default passwords
Enable HTTPS with Let's Encrypt (see Deployment Guide)
Keep Raspberry Pi OS updated: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Use a firewall: sudo apt install ufw && sudo ufw enable